THE ART OF

CONDENSATION
Summarizing, condensation, or précis
writing is an art.It aims at squeezing
the meaning of a text into the fewest
words
 Oxford Advanced Learner’s
Dictionary
• Condensation means process of making a
book shorter by taking out anything that is
not necessary. The process of condensation
in creative writing is synonymous to précis
writing.
 Meaning of Précis

• Précis is a French word that means to cut

short.
• In English , it is connected with the word
precise that means something accurately
expressed.
 A précis must be a concise,
complete or lucid piece of writing
• Précis means an abstract; and abstract
means the essence.
• A précis must contain the essence of the
passage that has been squeezed
 Steps to prepare a good précis
• Go through the passage to grasp the general
idea.
• Prepare a skeleton of basic structure by
noting down the main points and key words.
• Exclude all the illustrations, elaborations,
figurative comparison.
• Prepare the first draft by joining the
underlined words.
Following points must be checked
in the first draft.
• Use of Past Tense
• Use of third person pronoun.
• Use of indirect speech.
• Précis must be one third of the original.
• Main idea of the passage must be reflected
through précis.
 Title for Précis Writing
• Title can be traced from the main idea of the
passage.
• Title must be short and relevant.
• It must begin with a capital letter.
• In case of story the main character or his
experience can be the title.s
 Example
• Some books are not so important. We can just taste them by reading in
some parts, instead of wasting our time on a through reading. Some
other books lacking in depth and seriousness, can be completed in a
hurried manner. In such cases, as a light novel, superficial reading
would serve the purpose.It is like a swallowing a book,without
showing much curiosity. There are only a few books which deserve o
be studied very carefully.These books should be studied with so much
concentration as we eat food to chew and to digest. Just as food taken
in this manner gives nourishment to the body, the books studied in this
manner strengthen our mind.If the subject matter of some books is not
very important to us, we can read them by deputy;that is read their
summaries prepared by others. This will save our time and labor. But
this is possible only in the case of lesser sort of books.After all a
summary is as dry and tasteless as distilled water. It loses the charm.
 Solution
• All books are not equally important. Some
books can be read in parts, some in a
hurried manner.Only a few books need to
be thoroughly studied and preserved in
mind.Summaries save time but lack the
sweetness of the original books.